Monthly Archives: January 2008

Don’t be surprised if you don’t see a post here for a few days – things are hotting up this end with final preparations for Friday’s gig plus I’ll have a houseful of people for the weekend and I need to do the usual shopping and cleaning stuff too.

I went to song writing today and it was just what I needed after a particularly ghastly day yesterday as a result of someone I thought was a very good friend dumping on me from a very great height! Luckily, I have wonderful supportive friends and family and I feel better today – though still very rattled as it made me feel quite ill and I don’t need that right now. I wish this person had waited till after Friday to spew vitriol on me.

Anyway, enough of negative stuff; last night, after drumming, I met some friends for someone’s birthday bash and did a couple of songs at Presence, one of my regular open mic spots – I felt like smashing the guitar up but managed to restrain myself ha ha!

So, hopefully people will take lots of pictures on Friday which I’ll post up here and anyone who’d like to buy the album will be able to shortly – I’m just sorting out the Paypal thing. Anyone from the UK can just pm me and send me a cheque the simplest and cheapest!

So……..that’s about it for a few days – none of you will ever realise how much your support has meant to me over the last few months of organising this gargantuam project and I thank you again.

Last night I played flute and djembe for a friend at a great little gig in Bristol. We were on first and there were a couple more bands then a DJ and I had a great night dancing my head off and it was good as I needed to let off a little steam though I have bad headache this morning – I didn’t drink a lot really but it hasn’t done me much good – I had two pints of Guinness actually!

Today I’m having coffee with a friend then will do some more practice of my songs for Friday …the days are ticking away now. Tonight I’ll do a couple of open mics – that’s all I can do now.

The last couple of evenings I’ve gone out with various pals to a couple of gigs. The first, at the Prom, was a folk rock band whose name escapes me. Last night I had a band practice for MY gig then we went to a punk gig at The Croft.

Very noisy, so I used earplugs, that way you can actually hear the words surprisingly and not end up deaf for two days. The band was called The Disseminators and are very good though not my favourite kind of music. The drummer was very good (and fit ha ha) and the lead guitarist is a friend from songwriting and is extremely good!

The practice went pretty well though it’s hard to imagine what it will feel like on the stage as we’ve never played together before – I think it will be alright – and if it isn’t – well all I can say is I couldn’t have tried harder to get it the best we can.

Well – unusually for me, I had a really quiet weekend. The weather here in Bristol UK is absolutely foul. We wake up every morning to what feels like the twilight zone – constant grey, grizzly skies and non-stop rain and wind – at least it’s not particularly cold. My garden’s a bog though.

I saw one of my best friends for a proper girly chat yesterday afternoon and another friend in the evening………….

This morning I played tennis and I’ve spent most of the rest of the day parcelling up CDs for CDbaby (the other place I’ll be selling the CD), sending copies to various promoters and friends.

I’m practicing hard for the 1st and in a minute will go and run through my set AGAIN in my studio.

I’m looking forward to playing some of my other songs once the gig’s over ha ha!

I’m very happy that our own Wozza is coming up to Bristol for the gig – hurray!

Just got back from a great gig at The Cube – an old arts cinema in Bristol which also hosts music gigs.

I’m not sure of the name of the first performer but after her was Bela Emerson, an amazing cello player who generates extraordinary sounds using loop and effects pedals. Following her was the amazing Emily Breeze who is a very raunchy rock musician and she did a great set despite breaking a bass string and appalling feedback – I’m half deafened and am glad I had some earplugs with me to protect my ears!!

I thoroughly enjoyed today. It was the first Songwriting Group day of 2008 after a 6 week break due to the guy who runs it having a big gig before Christmas and not being able to run it, then Christmas and New Year and last week he had a cold.

It was a big group today and high energy! Everyone was excited to see each other and hear about each other’s gigs and new ideas etc.

I then had a practice with the people playing at my gigs (it’s a kind of temporary band consisting of a guitarist (my producer), a keyboard player, a couple of backing vocalists and a djembe player). It went pretty well and hopefully will be fine by the 1st – we have two more practices.

Here’s a copy of the new flier for the gig which the person doing the visuals for the gig designed based on my original idea. I’m hopeless at graphics but good at ideas!

After the practice, I came back here with one of the backing vocalists as I’M backing HER in a gig on the 26th playing flute and drums and we had a curry then a run through of her songs. Finished at 10pm!

Well….where to start! Yesterday was a very busy day, some of it too boring to bother writing about here, such as meeting a builder re the windows and a work meeting – but the evening was great. I had my first proper rehearsal with the other musicians who will play with me at the album launch gig on Feb 1st and it went pretty well! I really enjoyed it and feel that it will sound pretty good by the 1st!

Today, I played tennis for the first time this year in the “bubble”, had lunch with my mum, then went to the gig venue with R who is going to do the visuals at the gig. Basically she has designed a slide show to go with each track comprising still shots and movie clips which sync up with the music. We met up with the sound man for the night to discuss the stage set up and change overs, how the visuals will work with the tracks and the sound checks etc for the various performers. We also had a look round at the venue to think about how we’ll decorate the place to make it look good on the night. Then I went to a local hotel to book some rooms for people who are travelling far to come to the gig.

Unbelievably, the weather was terrible today with driving rain, wind and snow leading to local flooding and all sorts of ghastliness – at one point I was driving through a semi-blizzard virtually unheard of here.

This evening, I met up with some old friends for a drink, watched a bit of TV and am going to try and have an early night!

Tomorrow I have various chores to do, various people to contact and in the evening I’m having dinner with some friends I haven’t seen for years!